• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.34-42
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• 1997

Effects of DIF on stem elongation in plug seedlings of mini tomato ‘Mini Carol’ and on the growth and flowering after transplanting were investigated. Stem elongation of seedlings was mainly influenced by day temperature rather than night temperature. When the effect of ＋DIF was compared to that of -DIF under the same average daily temperature(ADT), day temperature had greater impact on internode elongation than night temperature. On the other hand, leaf unfolding rate increased and compactness decreased as ADT in creased. Differences in internode length affected by DIF during seedlings stage DIF progressively diminished during growth period after transplanting. Node position at which first flower was initiated was lowered as ADT decreased. It was concluded that DIF treatment was an applicable tool for control of stem elongation, particularly to reduce stem length without a noticeably adverse effect on the growth and development of plant after transplanting.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.381-390
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• 2018

This study was conducted to examine the growth characteristics of seedlings of several major fruit vegetables and compare them between plants grown with the conventional plug seedling system (Plug) and those grown with the cylindrical paper pot system (CPP). There were no significant differences in shoot growth characteristics, such as plant height, leaf area, dry weight, and fresh weight, between tomato, cucumber, and watermelon plants grown with the CPP and Plug systems. The total root lengths of tomato and cucumber plants grown with Plug were longer than those grown with CPP at the beginning of seedling growth, and the total root lengths of watermelon grown with Plug were longer than those grown with CPP throughout the whole seedling period. The length of root that separated five steps according to the diameter of the root of tomato did not differ between CPP and Plug, but those of cucumber and watermelon were 20-251% longer with Plug than with CPP for all kinds of roots. The fresh weight of Plug-grown tomato roots was about 30% heavier than that of CPP-grown tomato during the seedling period, but the difference decreased as growth progressed. Finally, there was no difference between plants before and after transplanting. The fresh weights of the Plug-grown plants were about 20-30% heavier than those of CPP-grown ones in terms of the whole seedling. After transplanting to the Wagner pot, the shoot growth of Plug-grown watermelon plants in terms of dry weight was low until 7 days had passed. However, this tendency was reversed from 8 days after transplantation onward. In conclusion, there were no significance differences in the growth of shoots between plants grown with the CPP and Plug systems. However, root development was better with Plug than with CPP.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.199-206
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• 2012

This study was conducted in a glasshouse to examine the possibility of producing tomato plug seedlings in a newly-developed inert phenolic foam medium. Plug seedlings of 'Madison' tomato were grown in four pellet type media, Grodan rockwool, UR rockwool, phenolic foam LC, and phenolic foam LC-lite. Seed germination was checked for 7 days. Seedling growth was measured at 19 days after sowing. The greatest germination was obtained in the phenolic foam LC and phenolic foam LC-lite. Plant height, hypocotyl length, leaf area, dry weight, and fresh weight were significantly greater in the rockwool medium than those in the other media. However, the T/R ratio and stem diameter were the greatest in the phenolic foam LC than those in the other media. The total porosity and container capacity of the phenolic foam LC was higher than in the other media. The air space (%) was lowest in the phenolic foam LC. Overall, the phenolic foam LC and phenolic foam LC-lite produced seedlings with similar growth as the rockwool. These results suggested that both phenolic foam LC and phenolic foam LC-lite have potential to be used in production of plug seedlings of 'Madison' tomato.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.101-107
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• 2007

This experiment was carried out to develop the substrate mixtures for the production of high quality plug seedlings of cucumber. Peatmoss based substrates, rice hull, carbonized rice hull, decomposed sawdust, perlite and granular rockwool were mixed by five different mixing ratioes (M1, M2, M3, M4 and M5). The cultivars used were cucumber (Cucumis sativus L. cv. Janghyung heukjinju) plants. The higher the content of peatmoss added, the higher the plant growth in terms of plant height, leaf area and total dry weight, which leading to the production of high quality plug seedlings. Seedlings growth of cucumber were greater in M5 mixtures [peatmoss:rice hull:decomposed sawdust=40:40:20(v/v)], M4 mixtures [peatmoss:rice hull:decomposed sawdust:granular rockwool=30:25:20:25(v/v)] and M2 mixtures [peatmoss:rice hull:decomposed sawdust:granular rockwool=20:20:15:25:20(v/v)] The concentrations of nutrient solution (EC) had a great influence on plant height, leaf area, total fresh and dry weight of cucumber seedlings growth. As the concentration of nutrient solution increased from 0.1 to $1.5dS{\cdot}m^{-1}$, the growth and seedling quality of cucumber in plant height, leaf area and dry weight were significantly improved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• 1997.06c
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• pp.238-246
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• 1997

This study was conducted to develop a robotic transplanter for bedding plants. The robotic transplanter consisted of machine vision system, a manipulator, a gripper and plug tray transfer system. The performance of the robotic transplanter was tested and compared by two different transplanting methods, which were to consider the leaf orientation of seedlings and not to. Results of this study were as follows. (1) A cartesian coordinate manipulator for a robotic transplanter with 3 degree of freedom was constructed. The accuracy of position control was $\pm$1 mm. (2) The robotic transplanter with the machine vision system, the manipulator, the gripper and the transfer system was developed and tested with a shovel-type finger. Without considering the orientation of leaves, the success rates of transplanting healthy cucumber seedlings in 72-cell and 128-cell plug-trays were 95.5% and 94.5% respectively. Considering the orientation of leaves, the success rates of transplanting healthy cucumber seedling in 72-cell and 128-cell plug-trays were 96.0% and 95.0% respectively.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.685-691
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• 2021

This study aimed to find a suitable size and a seedling raising stage for growing cuttings of Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald and Gold' using plug trays. The experimental method, involved cutting two nodes from a solitary branch of E. fortunei 'Emerald and Gold', and the use of 32 (143 mL/cell), 50 (70 mL/cell), 105 (18 mL/cell), 200 (13 mL/cell) plug trays. The cuttings were transplanted to trays after they were filled with a universal horticultural medium. To compare the growths, plant heights, the numbers of leaves, longest root lengths, thickness/radius ratios, dry weights, and fresh weights were measured from July to October, and statistical analyses were performed using both the two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's post-test. The results confirmed that the size of the plug tray and the seedling raising stage had a significant effect on the growth of E. fortunei 'Emerald and Gold.' In addition, the overall growth was high and the change in growth was relatively rapid in districts 50 and 105. Therefore, it can be considered appropriate to use 50 and 105 trays when growing cuttings of E. fortunei 'Emerald and Gold' on plug trays.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.271-276
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• 1998

A gripper mechanical design using a pneumatic system was developed to successfully grip, hold, and release a seedling plug for transplanting it. The gripper comprised of two air cylinders and shovel-type fingers. The gripper can grasp and hold a seedling by sliding the two fingers attached to the two separate air-cylinders, mounted at an angle of 15$^{\circ}$ When releasing a plug, retraction of the fingers gives a seedling little attachment to the gripper. To prevent seedling from attaching to the fingers, press-plates were attached to the end of the gipper. Transplanting performance of the developed gripper was tested with cucumber seedlings at different soil moisture contents. Overall transplanting performance of developed gipper was higher than the performance of the previously developed gripper. Best transplanting result was achieved at medium level of soil moisture content.

• Horticultural Science & Technology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.329-333
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• 2001

The study was performed to investigate the effect of a plug culture method in the early stage of a potato breeding program. The 105, 200 and 288-cell plug trays were used for raising potato seedlings. The % germination in plug trays ranged between 94 and 96%. Percent tuberization measured at 50 and 60, and 70 days after sowing was the greatest in 105-cell and 200-cell trays, respectively. However, tuberization was most delayed in 288-cell trays. Thus, it is considered that 105-cell tray is the most effective for the selection of early maturing plants. Plant maturity was determined by the morphological characteristics at the seedling stage of stolons cultured in plug trays. Most of seedlings with shorter stolons at seedling stage (1st generation) were the early-maturing, while most of seedlings with longer stolons were the late-maturing at the clonal stage (2nd generation). These results mean that the plant maturity in the early potato breeding program can be effectively grouped by observing the morphological characteristics of stolons after plug culture.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.302-306
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• 2005

This Study was Conducted in 3 glasshouse to examine the Possibility for cultivation of plug seedlings using four growing media containing recycled PET-bottle-particles (PBT) as a medium component. Plug seedlings of 'Seokwang' tomato were grown in media containing $100\%$ PBT, $100\%$ peatmoss, or $50\%$ $PBT+50\%$ peatmoss. A commercial plug medium (Tosilee) was used as the control. All seeds were sown in 128 cell plug trays on July 12, 2004. Seedling growth was measured at 30 days after sowing. Percent seed germination was greater than 95% in all treatments. Plant height, shoot fresh and dry weights, leaf area, and hypocotyl length were the greatest in the control treatment. Root length and weight were the greatest in the $100\%$ PBT treatment, which had a medium pH of 7.3. Leaf area and shoot dry weight were greater in the $50\%$ $PBT+50\%$ peatmoss treatment, than in the $100\%$ PBT treatment, while they were the smallest in the $100\%$ peatmoss treatment. No toxicity symptoms caused by the use or PBT had been observed in any treatment. The results suggest a possibility of recycled PBT, a valuable reusable resource, to be used as a component for medium amendments in horticultural transplant production.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Agricultural Machinery Conference
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.245-249
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• 2005